Bangalore - Goa : Route Queries

This is a discussion on Bangalore - Goa : Route Queries within Route / Travel Queries, part of the Travelogues category; Originally Posted by sarinkumar
Thanks Zoomsun. Anyway I will take this route as we will be spending two nights at ...

Thanks Zoomsun. Anyway I will take this route as we will be spending two nights at Jog. I will try to update this route condition once I am back.
Regards,
Sarin

For our return journey, I was planning to take a stop over at Hubli. This is mainly because; I don’t like to drive 12 to 13 hours at a stretch. For some reason, I had this inner call that; I should drive directly to Bangalore to reach home on Diwali day. I canceled the hotel booking in Hubli. We started around 7:15am from Verem and reached Gottigere, Bangalore at 4:45pm. This time we took NH4A/NH4 combination. Total time taken was 9.5 hours that includes one hour break at Kamat near Reliance petrol bunk (As per JLNs input). So, driving time was only 8.5 hours to cover 670 KM door to door. I felt it was good decision to skip our stay in Hubli.

I intend to drive to goa next week 16th to 20th. We would be 3 cars (all relatives) from Bangalore.

We intend to take Shimoga route for onward as well as return journey as few people in the convoy wants to follow that route so that they can visit Tyavarekppa Lion safari (Shimoga), Keladi and Ikkeri temples, HonneMaradu, Jog Falls as well as our temple at Ankola. Even though me and my family have seen these places, we don't mind visiting again along with others.

I understand from the previous posts (Thanks sarinkumar) here that the road conditions are as below, can some one re-confirm ?

Yelahanka – Hebbal – Yeshwantpur – Nelamangala : Good ConditionNelamangala – Dobbaspet – Tumkur : Good ConditionTumkur – NH 206 bypass : Bad Condition, Hence drive through tumkur townTumkur – Gubbi- Tiptur : Good condition, Several unmarked Humps between Tumkur & GubbiTiptur Town : Really BadTiptur -Arasikere : Good ConditionArsikere-Birur-Bhadravati BP-Shimoga : From Arasikere onwards for about 6 kms, the road was in really bad condition. After Birur, about 2 kms, the road is very bad between two railway gates. The road work there is in progress and hopefully in coming months it will be in good condition. Shimoga Town : Town Traffic, traffic signals etc : Use bypass towards Tirthhalli and then go to NH206 againShimoga – Sagar - Jog : Good condition with few bad patches, inter Town trafficJog - Honnavar – Kumta-Ankola – Karwar – Madgaon : Overall good, but few bad patches here/there

I would like to add Yana, Sirsi and Banavasi to the list if time permits during the return trip.

I also wanted to know whether Anjudiv island near Kawar is accessible to general public. I had been there some time in 1985 before the naval base came up. If not is there any other island where we can visit & return within say 3-4 hours.

It is official now. The road between Dharwad and Ramnagar that connects Karnataka to Goa and which has been in a very bad condition for decades is being converted into double-lane highway by the state government. On Sunday, public works minister C M Udasi performed the bhoomi pooja for the road construction work at Alnavar in the presence of rural development and panchayat raj minister Jagadeesh Shettar and MP Prahlad Joshi.

The state government has entrusted the works to the Karnataka Road Development Corporation which in turn has given the responsibility to Hyderabad-based GVR-RMN-Pratyusha Companies consortium named GVRMP Dharwad-Ramna-gar Tollway Private Limited. The 61.50 km stretch on the Aurad-Sadashivagad state highway No 34, which has made the journey for those travelling to Goa from Dharwad via Ramnagar a herculean task, will be re-laid for Rs237.60 crore. It will be on the build-operate-transfer (BOT) / viability gap funding (VGF) basis.

The nine-metre-wide road covers 29.9 km in Dharwad district and 31.50 km in Belgaum district before entering Goa. It will pass through three railway crossings, one bridge and 12 culverts. There will be two truck lay base, five under passes and two toll gates. The work is expected to be completed in two years. When completed, it will give a big boost to tourism, trade and commerce in Dharwad, Belgaum and Uttara Kannada districts.

The road has been in a bad shape for decades and any number of petitions and complaints to the authorities had failed to yield results. Those traveling to Goa were forced to take a route via Belgaum and Savantawadi, covering an additional distance of 80 km.
Kannadigas settled in Goa had repeatedly appealed to the legislators and ministers visiting Goa to get the road repaired, but to no avail.
Udasi, being the public works minister for second term, had failed to fulfill the demand. Successive governments had given up the road repair work after conducting ‘bhoomi pooja’, citing financial crunch. Dharwad MP Prahlad Joshi and minister Jagadeesh Shettar’s efforts to get the road included in Central Road Fund during the regime of H D Revanna as public works minister had also not been fruitful.

Now it seems the road is set to be repaired with state government contributing 20 per cent of the cost while the Centre will contribute matching amount. The companies taking up the work on BoT basis will bear 60 per cent of the cost. Th e BoT is for a period of 30 years and the time frame for getting the road ready is two years.

Thanks zoomsun. Relieved to hear that. The driver wanted to take the shimoga route but I told him that we will go via davangere. I will update the roads conditions once I get back.

Agreed with sarinkumar regarding each and every point regarding NH 206. We went to Goa and used NH4, stayed the night at Davangere, had awesome benne dosa and carried on to Goa. Like it has been mentioned multiple times, there are small humps that suddenly come up near Davangere that you need to be on the watch for.

While coming back, we took NH206 and boy, were the roads bad at Tiptur.

Oct 29'2010:
We had booked an innova for 6 people(3 couples). Left Bangalore at 6.30pm in the evening.
Route Taken - NH4 to Chitradurga-Davangere-Hubli-Kittur-Khanapur-Goa
Had Dinner at Chitradurga. Reached Davangere at 11.30pm for a night's halt.
The hotel was Shanti Park, Davangere. Not a great hotel but for the price of Rs 500 an ok place to stay.
The main reason of the stay was to avoid a night journey.

Oct 30'2010
Then started at 9am in the morning as we waited for 1 hr for a Davangere Benne Dose hotel to open. Took the Khanapur route, which is not so good. Remaining journey went on smooth.
Reached Nazri Resort near Baga beach around 3pm in the afternoon. We went to the beach, just lazed around and did some window shopping on the main streets.
The resort is ok for the price, the main advantage is the close proximity to the Baga beach which is a 10 minute walk.

Oct 31'2010
A full day at the beach. Lot of water sports activities - Banana ride, Para sailing, Bumper ride and Jet Ski.
A lot of people approach giving a package deal for all the activities. Even though we took it, we got a feeling we paid more. Just hang around the beach for some time to know the correct rates.
We also had taken 6 beach beds to rest after the water activities. You can bargain for price reduction if you order some food from the nearby shacks.

Nov 2'2010
Left to Bangalore around 10am in the morning.
The route taken Goa-Karwar-Sagar-Shimoga-Arsikere-Tumkur-Bangalore. The road condition was not so good. Reached bangalore around 12 in the night.

Total Distance covered: 1500kms

Suggestions:
- Avoid night journey to Goa in the Shimoga route if driving in a taxi/own vehicle
- If driving via Chitradurga-Davangere-Hubli and need a night stay, leave early around 2pm, reach Hubli/Dharwad for a stay instead of Davangere.
- For people not willing to drive, travel by bus to Goa which will save time due to night journeys and money as well. You can rent cars/bikes easily for going around Goa. Own vehicle not a necessity.
- Plan for atleast 3-4 full days in Goa. 2 days is just too short. But then, you will always want more of Goa ;-)

Any specific reason for this? I have travelled via this route 4 times are all are in midnight, no issues faced. But not aware of any recent issues (last travel was in Aug,10).

I have not travelled on this route at midnight, mentioned this based on the road condition I saw during the day at the moment. Felt that the route through NH4 is better compared to this. Even our driver was surprised with the condition of the road as he had taken this couple of months back.

@StarVegabond,
As already mentioned by others,here are my views and experience. In fact i am travelling to Banavasi tonight and would be back on sunday night. I will update the road conditions as i would be taking the same route.

@StarVegabond,
As already mentioned by others,here are my views and experience. In fact i am travelling to Banavasi tonight and would be back on sunday night. I will update the road conditions as i would be taking the same route.

Thanks rk_sans for the update about NH206. i look forward to your experience of the Banvasi trip.

Took NH4 Bangalore to Haveri on weekend, preety good except for few deviations. The sore point for the whole trip was at the Davangere By-pass, its worst.
As mentioned by others Haveri to Davangere, one side road was closed by villagers to dry the grains on the road.
Watchout for weird people on the earth who travel on the wrong lane from opposite direction on right side . I just missed hitting a motorcycle guy who was coming in opposite direction on the wrong side and also on the right.

Also watch out for humps near Bharmasagara,
@starvegabond,
Sorry, i did not take the route i mentioned to you. Last minute changed the decision, as i was travelling during night, so preferred the laned road.

I understand from the previous posts (Thanks sarinkumar) here that the road conditions are as below, can some one re-confirm ?

Yelahanka – Hebbal – Yeshwantpur – Nelamangala : Good ConditionNelamangala – Dobbaspet – Tumkur : Good ConditionTumkur – NH 206 bypass : Bad Condition, Hence drive through tumkur townTumkur – Gubbi- Tiptur : Good condition, Several unmarked Humps between Tumkur & GubbiTiptur Town : Really BadTiptur -Arasikere : Good ConditionArsikere-Birur-Bhadravati BP-Shimoga : From Arasikere onwards for about 6 kms, the road was in really bad condition. After Birur, about 2 kms, the road is very bad between two railway gates. The road work there is in progress and hopefully in coming months it will be in good condition. Shimoga Town : Town Traffic, traffic signals etc : Use bypass towards Tirthhalli and then go to NH206 againShimoga – Sagar - Jog : Good condition with few bad patches, inter Town trafficJog - Honnavar – Kumta-Ankola – Karwar – Madgaon : Overall good, but few bad patches here/there

I also wanted to know whether Anjudiv island near Kawar is accessible to general public. I had been there some time in 1985 before the naval base came up. If not is there any other island where we can visit & return within say 3-4 hours.

thanks in advance for the comments, inputs.

It is difficult to reach shimoga from bangalore in 3.30 hours. That is tough. Keep minimum of 4.30 hours if you drive without a stop. Else 5 hours with a coffee break. The road from Birur till Bhadravathi after rains - 10 days back i was there - has developed potholes and will slow you down a bit. Rest of the road condition is correct as given by others. The Byepass through Tumkur is not that bad. I recommend use the byepass and avoid the town as the roads in Tumkur are narrow and cosniderabley slow you down.